In order to be able to reopen in the fall, institutions needed to spend large amounts of money. Those who developed mandatory testing plans for their students need to pay for all of the tests, thousands per week, ensuring that the results are fast and accurate. They also needed to restructure the way that people are able to move in buildings, creating directional signage. In addition, they need to pay for cleaning products so people on campus are able to disinfect surfaces. Not only are these institutions spending large amounts of money, the towns which these institutions call home had their economies severely affected. In this article in the New York Times, author Shawn Hubler discusses ways in small towns famous for their colleges and universities were affected from the decisions to move to remote learning. A large part of these local economies rely on college sports, as well as students traveling off campus in order to go to local restaurants and bars. These students, families, and sports fans spend millions of dollars, fueling the local economy. In another article written for NPR, the author Sam Bridger brings a quote from a local resident of Ames, Iowa, which is the home of Iowa State University, a large public university with an undergraduate enrollment of 36,000. In Bridger’s article, the resident says, “‘We need to have them back because our restaurants are dying, our retail is dying.’ Some people were landlords. They rented to students and they needed the money to come back (Bridger).” Without students living in the rental properties, the landlords are losing money, as well as the benefits that their renters would bring to the local economy. In addition to the towns that these colleges call home experiencing, the colleges themselves are suffering. They are spending millions and millions of dollars in an attempt to keep their students safe while also being able to create the most normal experience that they can during a global pandemic.
